SOCIAL SECURITY Comes To Cape May Stage With Lynn & Ronald Cohen 7/22-8/29

Cape May Stage continues to build its artistic momentum as it presents Social Security, starring a strong ensemble of some of the most accomplished actors ever to grace its stage. Real-life couple Lynn & Ronald Cohen's natural chemistry creates comedic fireworks in this smart, fast-paced contemporary play. Written by acclaimed screenwriter, Andrew Bergman, (Blazing Saddles, Soapdish, Fletch, The In-Laws) this comedy set in the pretentious world of the New York City art scene promises laughs from start to finish.

Social Security takes place in the trendy world of 1980's Manhattan, where hyper chic art dealers, David and Barbara Kahn, are riding high. Their life is shattered with the arrival of her dreary sister and uptight brother-in-law, who have come to save their college age daughter from the horrors of living only for sex, and have brought along her crotchety, critical septuagenarian mother. The mother meets the Kahn's best client - a ninety-eight-year-old European icon, and hilarity ensues when romantic sparks fly where none were thought possible.

New Artistic Director, Roy Steinberg has assembled a cast of Cape May Stage newcomers Lynn & Ronald Cohen and Neal Lerner as well as audience favorites Andy Prosky, Grace Gonglewski and Suzanne O'Donnell. Their collective credits range from award-winning regional theater and Broadway productions to blockbuster films including Sex and the City and Stephen Speilberg's Munich. Following the huge box office success of Say Goodnight Gracie, Social Security is sure to continue that trend with sell-out crowds and delighted audiences, previewing July 22nd and running until August 29th.

Lynn Cohen has appeared in roles ranging from Magda, the nanny-housekeeper in Sex and the City, both the TV series and movie, to Golda Meir in Steven Spielberg's Munich. Her many other appearances on the New York stage include Hamlet and Ivanov (both with Kevin Kline); Macbeth (with Liev Schreiber); Orpheus Descending (with Vanessa Redgrave). This year she premiered Tina Howe's comedy Chasing Manet with Jane Alexander. Regional theatre work has taken her to such companies as Guthrie Theatre, Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory; Williamstown Theatre Festival; Actors Theatre of Louisville, ART at Harvard, and most recently Orlando Shakespeare Theatre with Olympia Dukakis in her adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Ronald Cohen appeared earlier this year with Olympia Dukakis in Another Part of the Island, her adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest at the Orlando (FL) Shakespeare Theatre. New York credits include turns with such groups as New York Classical Theatre (The Recruiting Officer), Boomerang Theatre Company (Henry IV Part One, Artist Descending a Staircase, A Midsummer Night's Dream, among others), and various concert readings with Food for Thought, such as Beckett's Happy Days with Kathleen Turner. In addition to treading the boards, he was for many years a writer and editor with the fashion industry bible, Women's Wear Daily, and currently writes about Broadway for Musical Stages, London.

Grace Gonglewski had her Off- Broadway debut at the Flea Theatre in New York City with Dukes of Hazard star Tom Wopat in The Guys (which she also starred in at Cape May Stage). Regional Theatres include: Arden Theatre Company (19 shows including Hedda Gabler, Candida and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), The Walnut (7 shows including The Heiress and Three Tall Women), Cape Playhouse (with Juliet Mills), The Wilma, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Delaware Theatre Company, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and Orlando Shakespeare Festival. Grace was honored to win The F. Otto Haas Barrymore Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist, as well as a Barrymore for Outstanding Supporting Performance In A Musical for The Arden Theatre's Little Night Music.

Neal Lerner most recently appeared Off Broadway in David Hare's Stuff Happens directed by Daniel Sullivan at The Public Theatre He has starred in Julius Caesar at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Fuddy Meers at Manhattan Theatre Club, Hurrah At Last at The Roundabout Theatre Company and Serious Money at The Public Theatre. Regional Theatres include Yale Rep, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville and George St. Playhouse. Lerner has had roles in television's Lipstick Jungle, Reba, The War at Home, as well as Ed, Frasier, Law and Order, L and O Criminal Intent, L and O SVU, Seinfeld, Caroline in the City, Newsradio, Married With Children, Murphy Brown, and Cheers. Neal is a proud graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Suzanne O'Donnell has performed in Cape May Stage's Dinner with Friends, Same Time, Next Year, All in the Timing, The Fourposter, Lovers, The Dorothy Parker Story and Eleemosynary. Regional credits include Arcadia at the Folger Theatre and Dancing at Lughnasa at the Arden Theatre. Suzanne has performed many of Shakespeare's women at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival such as Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Rosalind in As You Like It, Hermione in Winter's Tale, Ophelia, Juliet, Viola, Hermia, Emilia and Helena in All Well that Ends Well.

Andy Prosky has been seen by Cape May Stage audiences in The Price, Patsy Cline: A Portrait in Song, The Glass Menagerie, and Lovers to name a few. He has just recently returned from Europe where he co-directed and performed in Arthur Miller's The Price at Vienna's English Theatre in Austria. On Broadway, Andy performed with Christopher Plummer in King Lear at Lincoln Center Theatre. Off Broadway he joined the casts of The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, all at The Pearl Theatre Co. At the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park with the NY Shakespeare Festival, he acted in Titus Andronicus. His regional theatre credits include Arena Stage, Fords Theatre, The Walnut Street Theatre, The Old Globe, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, The Acting Company and others. Movie audiences will see Andy in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock due to be released in August of 2009. Other film and TV appearances include Men In Black, Mrs. Doubtfire, Up Close and Personal, The Great Outdoors, Law and Order, ER, and HBO's John Adams.

Production team includes Roy Steinberg (Director), Donald Toal (Production Stage Manager), Robert Martin (Set Designer), J. Dominic Chacon (Lighting Designer) and Will Knapp (Sound Designer).

"Social Security" performances are Tuesdays through Sundays at 8pm from July 22 through August 29 at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse of the Cape May Stage. Tickets are $35 adults, $25 seniors, and $12.50 students. Preview night on July 22 will be half-price tickets.
Official opening night is July 23 with an after party for all in attendance at the Pier House located on Beach Drive. Call (609) 884-1341 for tickets and information or visit the theatre's website, www.capemaystage.com. Audio enhancement, wheelchair accessible seating, and large print programs are available with advance notice by calling the box office at (609) 884-1341.

Photo credit: Margo Whitcomb
Pictured: Lynn & Ron Cohen

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